When Chris Cunningham's Rubber Johnny came out on DVD, it was the grossest thing on display at the record store. Grown men easily twice my age squirmed when I bought it. "I don't even want to know what that is," one said, glancing sideways at the fleshy, hairy cover. I paid my $10 and went home to pore over the monster that Cunningham had grown by smearing together photos of his junk with the rest of his body.

Rubber Johnny was released as a standalone short a few years after Cunningham's Directors Label DVD made the rounds among teenagers hungry to be grossed out. It was the Videodrome of music video anthologies, full of disgusting Aphex Twin cuts and also sublime images accompanying songs by Portishead, Madonna, and Björk. "Come to Daddy" saw an emaciated monster with Richard D. James's face being birthed from an old television in clear Cronenberg homage. "All is Full of Love", meanwhile, spliced Björk's face onto two robots that kissed in a pristine white factory.

If you're looking for evidence of Kanye West's thirst for the zeitgeist on Yeezus beyond TNGHT's pop-trap or Gesaffelstein's booming electro, focus on Brooklyn's Alejandro Ghersi, aka Arca. That Kanye-- or anyone in his camp-- would know about Arca is mystifying. A young producer with two EPs and one 25-minute album to his name, Arca has made knotty beat music for New York's experimental, progressive UNO label, and he's currently working on an album for Hippos in Tanks that's due out next year. He returned late last week with &&&&&, a short, self-released mixtape of new productions.